


Kitty-Corner Rumors

by uruhead



Category: Actor RPF, Australian Actor RPF, British Actor RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Domestic, Business Owner Chris, Gen, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, M/M, Single Chris, Witch Tom, Witches, blooming relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-01
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-23 11:44:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2546351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uruhead/pseuds/uruhead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chris doesn't believe in the supernatural, but there's been a rumor going around the neighborhood that his crush, Tom Hiddleston, is a witch! Even if he is, he's still damn cute...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kitty-Corner Rumors

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to make this longer, but considering that it's almost an hour past the 31st, it's kind of overdue and I don't want to wait any longer. I quickly finished up the end, so it probably seems like I left a lot of loose ends. If you want to know more, just send me a message at my tumblr (josswheedon).

October was the month of the year that witches, ghouls, and ghosts came to play in the mortal realm. The ghouls jumped across rooftops looking for organs to eat, the witches flew around on their broomsticks with their cats gazing down at the people decorating their homes for the well-liked Hallows Eve, and ghosts would waft around with the breeze, smelling of dying leaves and cold grass. Of course, Chris Hemsworth, local business owner of a men’s fashion store, didn’t believe in that kind of stuff. As much as he wanted to dress up, give out candy, even sometimes throw a party, he knew that witches, ghouls, zombies, ghosts, and the like didn’t exist.

Sure, there were always rumors going about London around this time that werewolves grabbed a nice young girl and ate her heart, leaving the gruesome mess in an alleyway next to some beautiful yet rundown building, but that’s all they were: Rumors. These rumors spread like wildfire between all the school kids, bringing them home to their parents, and then the parents telling their friends the cute way that their child’s eyes lit up when they told the story, so on and so forth.

However, there was one rumor that was very local. In his suburb of a suburb, the kids watched the house kitty-corner from his own. They refused to step on the lawn in case that the owner would come outside and beat them with something for doing so, even if he was known as a relatively nice guy otherwise. Once every few months, they would see a usually-dark window light up; every Halloween, the same window would light up sometime after the sun went down and the kids were done trick-or-treating. They called the owner a witch.

Chris had heard this from a neighbor a few houses down that had three kids, two twin boys Tristan and Sasha, and their older sister India. The neighbor’s name was Elsa, and she often invited him over to babysit. One day he went over to take care of the kids, and as she was getting ready to leave for work, she brought it up in passing. “They say that Mr. Hiddleston is a witch. India said that the girl next door to him, little Anne, asked him and apparently he just smiled. Isn’t that crazy? Kids will believe anything these days. He just loves his garden.”

_“Well,”_ Chris thought to himself, _“That wouldn’t make sense. Tom’s a man! He would be a wizard in that case.”_

Brushing off this thought, Chris laughed and shook his head before waving Elsa out the door. After she was gone, he turned around to run after the children and wear them out before dinner.

Elsa was right, though, Tom did love his garden. Tom grew pumpkins, flowers, herbs, even a small patch of tobacco every few years. The few times that Chris had stopped over to say hello or do something for his neighbor, Tom’s house always smelled of fresh tobacco smoke and whatever flowers that were in season. Chris knew that Tom enjoyed making things, as well. He made perfumes, bars of soaps, food, bouquets of flowers, as well as this stuff that he called “home-made miracle grow” that helped his flowers bloom more beautifully and his pumpkins become the most coveted things around. Most of these things were given to people all around the neighborhood. He would leave a basket of soaps and perfumes, or a bouquet of flowers on someone’s doorstep along with a little card with elegant handwriting on the front of it. Elsa got one when the twins were born, a basket filled with all sorts of natural perfumes and soaps. Elsa had quite sensitive skin, but before she returned the basket to Tom, she read the note. The note had a little wax seal on it with a gorgeous and intricate design on it that she didn’t know what it was keeping it shut. She cut it open and the words were written in a beautiful scrawl.

_The ingredients of the presents are at the bottom of the basket on a piece of paper in case you have any allergies or sensitivities. I hope you’re doing well, and I wish you the best of luck with the twins. – Tom_

Chris had gotten a basket or two of food, too, and it was always at the right times. Tom hardly knew Chris, but still it seemed like he sensed when Chris’ anger or stress was flaring. Usually, the anger or stress would be caused by some employee issues at his store, or some problems back home in Australia with his family. When Chris’ grandfather passed, the very next day there was a small basket of food on his doorstep with a note on the top of it, taped down.

           _Hope you’re all right. – Tom_

Of course, this had to be a coincidence, not that Tom was an all-knowing, powerful being of magic. The food was great, either way.

This year, Tom had already given away most of his pumpkins. He almost always gave one or two to the family next door to him with their daughter Anne, who often invited him over to dinner, and then another to Elsa and her children. Any good-natured person in the neighborhood with a child or two would get a pumpkin from Tom. What surprised Chris the most was that his doorbell rang about a week before Halloween.

Chris had been cooking dinner for himself when he heard the doorbell go off; he set down his cooking utensils on the counter and walked to the door. He dusted his shirt off from any bits of stray food that might have gotten on him when he was chopping them up, and opened the door.

“Good evening, Chris!” Tom said cheerily. In his arms had to be the most orange, plump pumpkin of Tom’s bunch this year. It was cleaned off from any dirt and practically sparkling with potential.

Chris looked up from the fruit and smiled at his neighbor. “Hey, Tom. What can I do for you?” Though, it was quite obvious that Tom was bringing him a pumpkin, even if he had never done that before, it was always courteous to ask.

“I’m bringing you a pumpkin, if you haven’t noticed already. May I come inside? It’s a bit chilly.” Tom was only in a light cardigan, gardening gloves and a hat. Well, he had pants and a shirt on, as well as some pretty worn sneakers, but that was assumed that he had on, anyway.

“Sure, sure.” Chris backed up and followed the swing of the door, letting Tom into his house. Tom tapped the toes of his shoes on the concrete stoop to get off any stray dirt or leaves before entering.

“Thanks.”

“No problem,” Chris smiled. “How’ve you been? I haven’t seen you gardening out front lately. I was kind of worried about you.” It was true, Tom hadn’t been tending to his flowers in the front of his house other than watering them every once in a while, if the rain didn’t do that already.

Tom glanced around the living room for a moment, noticing the Halloween decorations in the windows, the worn leather couch, the modest television set that looked dusty and unused. He turned to Chris after a moment and his lips turned up in a light smile. “I’ve mostly been baking, making soap, perfume… getting ready for Halloween. Either way, I didn’t plant any fall- or winter-blooming flowers this year, and my perennials already bloomed during the summer, so I’ve been letting them get sunshine and water on their own, for the most part before I plant some bulbs and cover the beds for the winter.”

“Ah,” Chris affirmed, nodding his head. “Well, I can help you plant those bulbs if you like? I know you get some straw for the beds, too, so I can always help move that or help you cover them.”

“That’s very sweet, Chris,” Tom chimed, “I’ll definitely keep it in mind. Little Anne next door is going to help me plant bulbs as well this year, so I definitely wouldn’t mind an extra helping hand from you. We could help each other out, too, by cleaning the gutters!”

“Eugh,” Chris stuck out his tongue, “I hate that job, but I suppose it’s necessary… I’d love help. When would you like to do it?”

“We could get it done in a day or so, so how about after Halloween, the beginning of November?”

Chris noticed how civil and domestic they were being, and it was something that he wanted more of somewhere deep in the back of his head. Did he want to be domestic with Tom or someone else? He didn’t know the answer to that. But instead of pointing out their domesticity, Chris nodded his head and smiled. “I’ll put it on my calendar, then.”

The conversation lulled for a second, Chris staring at Tom’s face with a pleased expression.

Tom sniffed the air. “Is something burning?”

~

After Tom said his goodbyes and left down the front walkway to the street, Chris went back inside and sat down at his kitchen table, sighing.

What was he going to do with this pumpkin?

Obviously, he could carve it and put it on his stoop, but that seemed too boring. Why would he waste the entire pumpkin just for a few nights of it being on his porch? His mother used to, and still probably did, make pumpkin muffins and freeze the rest of the pureed pumpkin to make more in the coming weeks of November. He could definitely do that, if he got his mother’s recipe, which was just a phone call, skype call, or email away.

But, no. There would be far too much puree left to make more than enough muffins, and he could easily give them out to the neighbors, but he was sure that they would all be sick of pumpkin by then, too. What else could he do with this damned pumpkin?

There was always pumpkin pie, though even that was a little too cliché, and he didn’t know how to make pie crust. He could always look it up online or in a cook book... That was kind of his best bet at this moment.

He’d start on it sometime in the next week or so, maybe a few days before Halloween.

~

Chris often tried to do his best to balance his work life with his social life. He had a few smatterings of girlfriends over the years, but none of them had ever really worked out. He was quite a handsome man, and had a whip-crack wit, but it wasn’t like he could pick out any person from a crowd and go to town smacking lips.

He had only had girlfriends, but he had had a plentiful handful of one night stands with both men and women. He was bisexual, leaning more towards his attraction for women, but there were men that made him swoon as well. Originally, Tom hadn’t made him feel like that. He wanted to say that Tom was his friend and neighbor, not a sexual interest; over the years, Tom had slowly wormed his way into Chris’ heart, leaving him somewhat aching to bring him out to dinner, or bring him presents for Christmas.

It was incredibly sappy thinking about his neighbor that way, especially when Chris didn’t know what Tom’s sexuality was, or if he just wasn’t interested in sex at all, and was just romantic. What if he wasn’t romantic? What if he was neither romantic _nor_ sexual?

Chris covered his face as he leaned back in his chair, knees bumping the table legs. He groaned, shutting his eyes. This was ridiculous. All of that would be fine, yes, he wasn’t going to ridicule Tom for being aromantic or asexual, but it was kind of disheartening that if he was either or both of those things Chris wouldn’t have a chance.

There really was only one way to figure out what Tom’s sexuality was, and that was to talk to him. That would be rather difficult, knowing nothing of Tom’s schedule and his own schedule being so radically prone to change at the drop of a dime thanks to his family, store, and the babysitting gig he did for Elsa. Chris went to bed around 11 at night, and woke up around 7 or 8 in the morning to work out and figure out his day, but there really was no time between those two times that he had any space to sit down and _chat_.

“Augh!” Chris growled with discontent. What could he possibly do?

With Halloween coming up in a few days, Chris knew that he would have to work early in order to get off of work in time to give out candy. He’d already been decorating his house with the few spare moments he had, even forgoing working out in order to dress up a fake skeleton in some of his old costumes and putting him in a lawn chair next to his door. It was poor decorations, and he wished he had more time to make a better display, but that was all he could do.

Wait. Halloween!

He had time on Halloween, and so did Tom. Every year Tom would go all-out on his house, putting fake cobwebs up on the outside windows, carve pumpkins, and put small eye-shaped lights with a motion sensor noise-maker in the bushes to scare the children coming up. He had never seen Tom throw a party for Halloween, so he wasn’t sure why he would deck out his home if he was just going to read and give out candy until people stopped showing up at his door.

Was it was some sort of ploy to get people to come to his door, so they weren’t automatically affronted with drunk people and loud music, and instead they were comforted by the smell of pumpkin pie, begonias, and the kindness in Tom’s eyes? If it was some con, Chris definitely didn’t know what the grand scheme of it all was, then. Maybe he was slowly poisoning people with his candy and soaps, giving away radioactive, genetically-altered pumpkins to kill everyone in the neighborhood. Maybe he was just ridiculously nice.

That was another reason that Chris liked him, though. Tom was so mysterious and cautious, seeming that he had no flaws. He was the perfect porcelain doll of the community, and Chris wanted to dig deeper and search for the truth, to see how human he was. He wanted to hold Tom’s hands and look into his eyes, search for all of his imperfections.

Whoa. Getting a little too deep, there. A little too creepy.

Either way, Tom didn’t have many people coming over to his house that Elsa, Chris, or any of their neighbors knew about. He would see a lady, quite a bit older than Tom, go to Tom’s house every once in a while, which Chris assumed was Tom’s mother. There was also a girl who looked a little younger than Tom, and at first, everyone thought that this girl was Tom’s girlfriend, but when the girl arrived with Tom’s supposed mother, Chris knew that she was a sibling.

Tom seemed rather lonely, and it made Chris somewhat concerned that Tom wasn’t getting enough social interaction. Tom did leave the house every once in a while other than to go to the shops. Tom would go have recreational time; book clubs, movies, small concert venues, and other things, but it was sporadic.

Maybe it was time that Chris initiated something with Tom. Presents, bringing him to dinner, inviting him over to watch a movie, bringing him—!

Chris looked up at his ceiling, a small smile growing on his face. He knew exactly what he was going to do.

~

Baking the pie was the less difficult part. He had looked up some recipes online and Skype-call his mother for some tips, yet with all his inexperience, the pie turned out looking decent enough for presentation. The crust was a little disproportionate around the edges, but he was more than okay with the outcome. He also still had more than enough pumpkin puree to do… something with.

But he had bigger fish to fry. He stood in his costume, Captain America, near the inside of his front door around 4:30 in the afternoon on Halloween day. The kids would be out rather soon, if they weren’t already. Chris had his things and was ready to go, so why wasn’t he going? Was he nervous? Scared?

_“No,”_ Chris battled with himself. _“I’m not scared or nervous. I’m just hesitating, that’s all.”_

With that thought, Chris was out the door relatively quickly. He locked the door behind him.

Chris bounced on his toes before stashing away his keys in his bag and heading across the street to Tom’s house. He made sure that he wasn’t going too fast, he didn’t want to seem desperate to get over there. As soon as he got to the front doorstep, Chris didn’t hesitate to knock on the door. It didn’t take long for someone to show up at the door. What peeked through the crack of the door first was a long snout, its lips curled back. The inside of its mouth looked wet and menacing, and it made Chris a little worried. Did Tom have a large, aggressive dog?

As the door pulled back, Chris was relieved to find that it wasn’t a real animal, but a person in a werewolf costume—a very convincing one. The head tilted to the side and the eyes blinked, deep yellow in color and staring straight through Chris. The mouth dripped with thick liquid closely resembling viscous saliva onto the floor. The fur was dark and matted, the legs bowed like a dog’s, claws long. Chris was thoroughly impressed.

“Trick or treat?” Chris spluttered. The human operating the costume made a sound and a hand flew up to the headpiece, lifting it up and off so it was resting on the back of his head, revealing that it was truly Tom inside.

“Chris! I knew that you looked a little old to be trick-or-treating, and you didn’t have any kids with you. Goodness, I didn’t even recognize you without all the hair.” It seemed Tom realized what he had said and looked almost mortified. “I mean, not that it’s a _bad_ thing that you have long hair, it’s just a very—distinguishing feature of yours.”

Chris laughed and shook his head at Tom’s faltering. “Nah, mate. I understood you the first time.” He stood there quietly for a second too long, then looked down at his bag. “I brought you something.”

“Did you?” Tom seemed excited. “I do enjoy presents. Come inside, please. It’s getting rather chilly, and I don’t want the kids to have to wait to get candy.”

Chris blinked a few times before smiling. “Of course.” He stepped up over the doorframe and past Tom into the foreign home.

He had never been inside Tom’s home, so he took the experience in with vigor. Tom’s house was just as aromatic as he expected it to be, but not overwhelmingly so. The usually harsh smell of tobacco was soft and heavy like a warm blanket; more scents followed through the tobacco and Chris couldn’t name them, but they were floral and undertones. Dried flowers were in a vase near the entrance of the door on a shelf, and perched above it on the wall were framed pictures of what looked like family members hanging neatly on small nails. Everything was neat and organized, bookshelves filled with books of all different genres, and then square wicker baskets held blankets, drawing supplies, and magazines.

Chris only got to glance around so much in before he knew he was being rude by checking out the rest of Tom’s home and not giving Tom his gift. Chris turned around to look at Tom and saw him closing the door, setting down a large wooden bowl of candy that was decorated to look like an owl on the front. Tom turned to Chris and took off the headpiece of his suit, holding it under his arm.

“Warm in there?” Chris asked, smirking. Tom was breaking out in a small sweat on his brow.

“Mm,” Tom agreed, “The lengths I go to to get a good scare out of the neighbor kids.”

“And might I say you’re doing a fantastic job of it!”

Tom laughed and took a small bow before guiding Chris farther into the room by leading the way. He sat down on the couch, stretching out his long, werewolf legs and groaning, werewolf head sitting on its base next to him. “The kids usually come in batches every five minutes or so, but I have all night, so you don’t need to rush yourself to leave.” Tom smiled genuinely. “Now! What did you bring me on this beautiful All Hallows Eve?”

Chris moved his bag from his arm to his lap, bringing out a tub of whipped cream and the pie wrapped in a layer of plastic wrap so it wouldn’t get flattened or damaged. He took off the plastic wrap and showed it to Tom with a smile. “Ta-dah!”

Tom perked up immediately, reaching over to take the pie tin in his furry, clawed hands, looking down at it happily. “How festive of you!” Tom cheered, he made to get up out of his seat, probably to take the pie deeper into the house to the kitchen, when knocks arrived on the door. Tom’s eyes sparkled with delight when he heard the chatter of children outside on his stoop and looked to Chris. “Why don’t you answer that and I’ll start cutting us a slice of the pie?”

Oh, yeah. Chris _definitely_ wanted to be domestic with Tom, not with anyone else.

Chris nodded his head and got up, making sure that Tom was watching when he puffed out his chest and marched to the door like the true Captain America. He opened the door, looking down to see Elsa, Tristian, Sasha, and India.

“Chris!” India swelled with excitement.

“Well, hello, India!” Chris said with equal excitement in his voice. He leaned down and picked the girl up, bringing her into a tight hug. “What’s your costume?”

“I’m Flynn Rider! And Momma is Rapunzel. Oh, and Tristian and Sasha are the _henchmen_.” India bounced in Chris’ arms. Chris set her down after a moment. “And _you’re_ Captain America!”

“That’s right! You all are looking very lovely this evening.” Chris beamed at Elsa, getting a soft, happy smile in return. “How about some candy for the road?” Chris reached for the bowl of candy, finding coarse fur instead. He looked back, seeing Tom lean down to India with a caramel-covered apple on a stick in his hand.

India’s eyes lit up with absolute joy. She looked back at Elsa, who gave a small nod, and she reached for the stick in Tom’s hand slowly. “Oh my _gosh_.” She sounded shocked that she was receiving such a treat. “For a witch, you really are nice!”

“India Rose!” Elsa hissed, though she couldn’t reach out to scold her with the boys in her arms.

“No, no, it’s alright,” Tom insisted, crouching down to rest on his heels. “I put a magic spell in the apple to make you grow up big, strong, and even more beautiful than you are now.” Tom winked at her, and she giggled animatedly. “And when your brothers are bigger, I’ll make sure they get a candied apple as well, so they get to be strong like their sister.”

India took in a big breath, filling her chest as she beamed. Her shoulders scrunched up high, the apple in one hand and her pillow case in the other. She looked absolutely elated. “Thank you,” she said earnestly, “I want my brothers to be big and strong like me.”

“And they will be,” Tom reached out and ruffled her hair. “Now, how about some candy?”

How could India get more excited than she already was? Chris watched as Tom grabbed the bowl and let India pick her favorite piece of candy, then offered two for Elsa to put in the boy’s bag as well. Chris’ eyes softened, seeing the natural way that Tom interacted with the kids, how India was so excited, how Elsa was so happy to let her kids have fun.

Elsa glanced at Chris, seeing his expression and smiling discreetly to herself.

“Alright, now,” Elsa coaxed, “I’m sure Anne’s house has a lot of candy to give out. How about we go see what they have and show off your costume?”

India nodded to her mom, looking at Chris and Tom with a huge smile. “Thank you! Happy Halloween!”

“You’re very welcome,” both Chris and Tom said brightly.

They spent another ten minutes handing out candy to kids coming up to Tom’s door at almost a constant flow. Tom put the mask back on to his suit and showed the kids how it worked, scaring some of the older kids while making sure that the younger ones could pet the snout to help them realize that it was fake and wasn’t going to hurt them.

The door finally closed and Tom set the head down again, heading to the kitchen to get more candy to put in the bowl. He seemed to have an abundance of the stuff. Chris sat down on the couch as Tom filled the container and relaxed, pulling off his own mask to set down on his leg. He fixed his hair, removing the hair tie for his bun to let it fall down.

“Hey, that’s a familiar face,” Tom teased, making Chris laugh gently. “You still want that slice of pie?”

“Absolutely.”

~

They ate between intervals of talking and giving out candy, Chris having two slices of pie and Tom having three over the course of four hours. The kids had come in abundance this year, and Tom had run out of candy earlier in the night than he would have liked. Chris, however, thinking that he wasn’t going to stay over at Tom’s for so long, had candy over at his own house in preparation of going back and handing out candy of his own. He practically sprinted to his own house, grabbed the bags of sweets before making his way back over to Tom’s.

When the kids dwindled to a stop around nine in the evening, Tom shut off his front porch light. He looked down into the candy bowl, seeing an Aero bar, a box of Smarties, a couple bags of Maltesers, and some Toffee Crisps. He particularly enjoyed Toffee Crisps, but he easily just offered the bowl to Chris. “It is your candy, so I should give it back. I won’t even take any from you, since you helped hand it out and gave me a pie.”

Chris chuckled. “I hardly eat sweets, anyway. You can have it.” He looked at Tom with a contented smile and glint in his eye.

Tom seemed to look at him for a long moment before smiling wide. He reached out, touching Chris’ upper arm and leaning forward, pressing a kiss to the corner of his lips. Innocent, sweet. It sparked something inside of Chris, and a blush rose to his cheeks fast.

When Tom pulled back, he kept eye contact for a long moment, then set the bowl full of candy down where he had it before. “It’s pretty _spooky_ on Halloween, especially at night.”

“Yeah?” Chris’ voice cracked slightly, and he cleared his throat. He was oblivious to what Tom was trying to say.

“Stay over?”

Chris didn’t even have to think about it. “ _Hell_ yes.”


End file.
